Environment: Year In Review 1994

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This article was originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year, an annual print publication that
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International Cooperation

Efforts continued throughout 1994 to implement agreements made at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, or Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro. The June 1994 deadline for drawing up the desertification treaty and action plan called for in Agenda 21 was not met, but the convention was agreed and signed in October. The UN General Assembly had agreed that priority should be given to Africa, but countries of Latin America and Asia refused to accept this, and the nations likely to provide most of the financing were uneasy about the open-ended nature of the plans being submitted.

At a meeting in December 1993, European Union (EU) environment ministers agreed to ratify the UN Convention on Climate Change after six members withdrew their objection that ratification would be hypocritical in the absence of a carbon and energy tax. The tax was opposed by the U.K., and at a meeting in Luxembourg on Oct. 5, 1994, the British secretary of state for the environment, John Gummer, reiterated his government’s rejection of it, even though the chairman, Germany’s Klaus Töpfer, suggested a compromise that would permit governments to raise existing fuel and energy taxes rather than introduce new ones.

An International Conference on Chemical Safety, held in Stockholm April 25-29 under UN auspices, was attended by delegations from 130 countries. Arising from Agenda 21, it aimed to find ways of policing the trade, use, and disposal of toxic substances. An International Forum on Chemical Safety was established as an instrument to integrate and consolidate efforts to promote chemical safety.

Countries participating in the Global Environment Facility (GEF) were presented with the recommendations of a study they had commissioned to evaluate its work at a meeting in Cartagena, Colombia, in December 1993. The study concluded that GEF activities should be suspended, control removed from the World Bank, and an independent secretariat appointed. The main criticism was of a lack of agreement between industrialized and less developed countries (LDCs) on the purpose and strategy of the GEF and the linking of projects to development schemes run by the same dominant institutions. The talks in Cartagena broke down over disagreements about the composition and chairmanship of the 30-member executive council. It was agreed to refresh GEF funds by $2 billion when negotiations were finally completed in March 1994.

In July François Goutorbe, director of the Institute for Polar Research and Study, told Greenpeace International that France had abandoned plans to build a landing strip near its Dumont d’Urville base on the Adélie Coast, on which about $22 million had already been spent, but it was considering renovating the small existing strip for the use of light aircraft. In January a large piece of the Astrolabe glacier had fallen into the sea, causing a huge wave that engulfed the 1,100-m (3,600-ft) runway, washed away a service road, and pushed boulders onto the runway. The area was important for wildlife.

United States

In October 1993 Pres. Bill Clinton published his 50-point plan to reduce U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases by 100 million tons. The plan relied on voluntary measures, such as greater energy efficiency in homes and electrical appliances, increased reliance on hydroelectric power, reduction of power-plant emissions, and tree planting. It made no attempt to reduce car emissions and was criticized by environmental groups for failing to set targets. In July 1994 Carol Browner, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, told a meeting of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development that the EPA planned to allocate half its annual research budget to long-term research. This would direct more of its funds to universities and would improve standards of peer review.

In late July the House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing the California desert protection bill. The legislation, which was the largest U.S. land-conservation measure since 1980, had been debated for eight years. It was expected to protect some 3.2 million ha (8 million ac) of desert and more than 2,000 species of plants and animals.

Hearings relating to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound commenced in Anchorage, Alaska, in May. The plaintiffs sought $1.5 billion in compensation from Exxon Corp. and the ship’s captain, Joseph Hazelwood. In June the jury found in favour of the plaintiffs, and in September, in one of the largest awards in legal history, it ordered Exxon to pay $5 billion in punitive damages to a group of up to 34,000 fishermen, native Alaskans, and others for harm they had suffered. Hazelwood was also ordered to pay $5,000 in damages.

United Kingdom

During the early part of 1994, most environmental interest centred on the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp) for spent reactor fuel at Sellafield, Cumbria, England. It was reported in December 1993 that 63% of the 42,500 people who responded to a government request for comments on the desirability of the facility were opposed to it. Most objected to increased radioactive discharges and the lack of a fresh public inquiry. On December 15 Gummer announced in the House of Commons that permission had been granted for Thorp to commence operations and that the discharges permitted would not lead to unacceptable risks to human health or to the environment. Greenpeace and the Lancashire County Council applied in the High Court for orders that would block authorization of the plant, on the grounds that Gummer acted unlawfully and wholly unreasonably in failing to hold a public inquiry, but on March 4 their application was rejected. Thorp had already commenced operating on January 17. Following the High Court hearing, Thorp’s operator, British Nuclear Fuels, Ltd., announced that reprocessing would start within one month.

Concern also grew over pollution caused by road traffic. In May the Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards recommended a maximum level for ozone of 50 ppb (parts per billion) measured over eight hours. Monitoring stations had recorded ozone levels exceeding the recommended limit on up to 83 days a year in southeastern England. For this target to be met, emissions of nitrogen oxides would have to be reduced by more than 95% and volatile organic compounds by 75-85%. The report of a two-year study by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, published in September, concluded that the projected doubling of the number of cars over the next 30 years would cause unacceptable environmental damage.

The Inspectorate of Pollution received 524 complaints about industrial processes, a 60% increase, which its director, David Slater, welcomed as indicating that it was becoming better known. Following a U.S. report on health risks associated with dioxin, Slater announced a review of U.K. emissions and hinted that emission standards might have to be tightened.

Western Europe

Environment ministers from EU countries agreed to a directive on packaging waste on Dec. 16, 1993. Within five years of the directive’s coming into force, probably by 2000, 25-45% of packaging waste would have to be recycled, either for reuse or for incineration to generate power. Different recycling targets were set for different materials, but none was below 15%. Greece, Ireland, and Portugal were allowed a longer implementation period. Germany, Denmark, and The Netherlands were permitted higher targets, provided the European Commission was persuaded they had sufficient recycling capacity to handle those targets without requiring the export of waste.

The Green parties, which fought the June elections for the European Parliament on a joint manifesto, maintained that economic growth should not continue regardless of its social and environmental costs. The German Greens held a congress in October 1993, while opinion polls showed their support holding steady at 8-10%. The dominant figure was Joschka Fischer, the environment minister in Hessen, who was influential in securing the merger with Alliance ’90, the environmental and civil rights party from the former East Germany, and in broadening Green policies to include wealth redistribution. The Greens/Alliance ’90 held a conference in Aachen in November 1993 at which old differences over the wisdom of power sharing reemerged, but at a later meeting of 700 delegates held in Mannheim on Feb. 26-27, 1994, the Greens pledged their readiness to share power. At the June elections earlier polls were confirmed as the Greens took 10% of the vote and 12 seats. Ireland’s Green Party, which benefited from a protest vote and low poll, won two seats in the European Parliament.

The environment minister in the new Italian government, Altero Matteoli of the neofascist Italian Social Movement, said in May that he welcomed the idea of parks and specially protected areas (provided they were not off-limits to people or barred from possible economic use) and favoured nuclear energy. He also said he would revive plans for a major highway down the west coast from Livorno to Civitavecchia that had been shelved, largely because of environmental concerns. Environmentalists were outraged, and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi moved swiftly to placate them by appointing Roberto Lasagna--a former international director of the World Wildlife Fund and an opponent of nuclear power--as Matteoli’s deputy.

On Dec. 1, 1993, Greenpeace protesters were evicted from the nuclear plant site at Cadarache, France, 50 km (31 mi) from Marseilles, after they climbed a chimney and unfurled a banner. They objected to an experimental meltdown that scientists studied by monitoring the movement of radionuclides through the reactor vessel. The experiment lasted five hours, and the meltdown went further than the 1979 Three Mile Island accident, with about 20% of the fuel melting. Fission products that escaped into the containment shield through safety valves in the pressure vessel were allowed to travel to different parts of the reactor for four days and then into an outer tank, where robots monitored them for three months.

Eastern Europe

Opposition to the Gabcikovo hydroelectric scheme in Slovakia weakened with the discovery, reported in July, that diversion of the Danube River might have actually proved environmentally beneficial by reviving wetlands and recharging underground aquifers. In response to environmental concerns, Slovakia had fed part of the diverted flow into wetlands, some of which had been largely dry for 30 years, apparently because dams built in Austria had altered the hydrology and caused the river to erode its bed. Until the flow was increased, there was less than one month each year when the water level rose high enough to enter the old arms of the river.

NIPSCO Industries, Inc., Wisconsin Electric Power Co., and Edison Development Co. agreed in May to contribute $200,000 each toward the $1.5 billion cost of converting the highly polluting Decin Bynov power plant in the Czech Republic from burning brown coal to burning natural gas and improving its efficiency. Carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by 12,800 tons a year, more than 65%. The balance of the cost would be met by the city of Decin. The Czech government agreed to transfer to the U.S. 40% of the credits it earned for reducing emissions under the Convention on Climate Change. The U.S. companies hoped they would be allowed to offset this against cuts required in their own plants.

On September 26 the Greek High Court ruled that the government had acted illegally in proceeding with the EU-backed £ 1 billion scheme to divert the Achelous River without commissioning a full environmental-impact statement (EIS). The action was brought by three environmental groups--the Hellenic Ornithological Society, World Wildlife Fund Greece, and Elliniki Etaria--that feared the project would dry out wetlands and damage an important bird reserve. The judgment meant work had to cease on a 17.7-km (11-mi) tunnel through the Pindus Mountains and on a series of partially completed dams until the EIS was completed, which could take two years.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported in October 1993 that the incidence of thyroid cancer among children in some areas of Belarus and Ukraine continued to rise following the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine. Since 1989, 225 new cases had been identified in Belarus and 158 in Ukraine, against a normal incidence of 1-2 cases per million population. Thyroid cancer was also high among adults, with 2,039 cases registered in Belarus and more than 3,000 in Ukraine. Certain puzzling features remained unexplained. In Belarus more than half the cases were in Gomel oblast, with few reported from neighbouring Bryansk oblast in Russia, and in Ukraine the rise in cases was delayed and less pronounced than in Belarus. At a meeting in July the Group of Seven agreed to add $200 million to the $600 million already pledged to Ukraine by the EU, much of the additional funding coming from Europe, in the hope that the money would be used to close down the two remaining gas-graphite reactors at the Chernobyl plant. Ukraine also wanted to use the funds to complete five reactors that were under construction. Studies by the U.S. Department of Energy and the World Bank, however, found it would be cheaper to improve industrial efficiency than to build new reactors.

In March a group of Russian scientists and representatives of public interest groups announced the establishment of the Centre for Ecological Policy. The centre would be run by a board chaired by Aleksey Yablokov, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Its aim was to influence government policy by offering novel solutions to urgent ecological problems, and it was expected to supply the environmental movement with objective scientific information and advice.

Asia and the Pacific

In Australia it was reported in November 1993 that the Tasmanian government had ordered the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Co. to halt the revegetation of hills near Queenstown and to refrain from spraying fertilizer on native seedlings that were already planted. The hills had been denuded by acid rain caused by a copper smelter operated by the company, which was bound by legislation to revegetate the area. Opposition came from local people who preferred the hills to be left barren as a valuable tourist attraction and as part of the history and cultural heritage of the town. Most of the damage occurred between 1896 and 1904, when iron pyrite was used in the smelting process, but between 1904 and 1969, when smelting ended, the use of coal produced enough acid rain to prevent natural regeneration.

In May villagers living near the Ok Tedi River in Papua New Guinea lodged a $A 4 billion lawsuit against Australia’s largest company, BHP. The action, started in Melbourne by Rex Dagi, leader of the Miripiki clan, was the largest civil claim ever lodged in Australia and was a representative action for about 7,500 villagers, with more writs expected to follow. The plaintiffs claimed that a copper and gold mine managed by BHP had destroyed their traditional way of life by discharging material into the river since 1984, clogging and polluting it with copper and cadmium. The plaintiffs claimed that the river was biologically dead and that villagers had had to move because they could no longer maintain market gardens.

ISSUES OF CONCERN

Air Pollution

Results of a study commissioned by the Swedish NGO Secretariat on Acid Rain, reported in July, identified 100 installations responsible for about 43% of Europe’s sulfur dioxide emissions. Of the offenders, 95 were power plants, with 11 of them in Britain, but the biggest was the Maritsa plant in Bulgaria, which released 350,000 tons of sulfur dioxide a year. Three installations were metal smelters, two of them in the Russian Arctic; one was an oil refinery; and one was a blast furnace producing pig iron. EU figures released in May showed that in 1993 unleaded gasoline accounted for nearly 90% of sales in Germany, more than 75% in The Netherlands and Denmark, 52.6% in the U.K., and 20.9% in Portugal. The EU average was 53.3%. Results of a study of Antarctic snow, published in May, showed lead concentrations fell during the 1930s, declined overall between about 1920 and 1950, doubled by 1980 to six parts per billion, and declined again to five by 1986, probably because of the use of unleaded fuels in Brazil.

In March estimates by Joel Schwartz, an epidemiologist at the EPA, suggested that microscopic particulate emissions called PM10s could be causing up to 10,000 deaths a year in England and Wales, with vehicle emissions being the major source. This idea found support at a meeting on urban air pollution and public health held in London in September, when Jon Ayres of the Chest Research Institute at Birmingham (England) Heartlands Hospital reported that asthma attacks increased with rises in PM10 levels. Douglas Dockery of the Harvard School of Public Health said evidence that linked an increase of PM10s per cubic metre of air with a slight increase in deaths from heart attacks, respiratory illness, and asthma attacks was growing. He said these trends had been detected in 10 U.S. cities and in São Paulo, Brazil. Although PM10s were not known to be toxic, it was suspected they might carry toxins on their surfaces into the lungs. Medical researchers also found a link with gaseous pollutants. Ayres reported that patients with mild asthma caused by an allergy to house-dust mites had more severe symptoms if they inhaled nitrogen dioxide, which acted as a potentiating agent that made the respiratory tract more sensitive to allergens. Jagdish Devalia of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, reported studies that found nitrogen dioxide could inflame cells lining airways, preventing them from expelling allergens. Increased asthma was therefore linked to rising numbers of house mites, which thrive in centrally heated homes, and to rising emissions of nitrogen dioxide from vehicles and gas fires.

For four days in June an experiment in traffic control brought a marked improvement in air quality to Heilbronn, Germany. Cars were prevented from entering the town unless they had been fitted with three-way catalytic converters, and trucks were barred unless they had the most efficient diesel engines. At the same time, a 60-km/h (37-mph) speed limit was imposed on the nearby autobahn. Traffic within the town was reduced by 40%, and use of public transport increased 50%. Urban concentrations of nitrogen oxides decreased by 40%, and in the town centre benzene concentrations were halved. Results on the autobahn were inconclusive, although there was a reduction in traffic noise. In late July the state of Hessen introduced a 90-km/h (58-mph) speed limit on autobahns and an 80-km/h (50-mph) one on other roads in an attempt to curb tropospheric ozone levels, which reached record levels during a long spell of hot weather in Central Europe.

In June the U.S. government announced that alcohol made by fermentation of corn (maize) had to be added to gasoline sold in several cities in an effort to reduce carbon monoxide emissions. The decision required that by 1996 30% of the oxygen content in reformulated gasoline would have to come from renewable sources, mainly ethanol, which was made from corn. The remaining 70% would continue to come from methyl tertiary-butyl ether, made from methanol, which is derived from natural gas.

Ozone Layer

On October 4, scientists of the British Antarctic Survey reported a 65-70% depletion in stratospheric ozone over the Faraday base. This was similar to the depletion reported by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in October 1993, when ozone levels at three stations reached their lowest values in 30 years over a 22 million-sq km (8.5 million-sq mi) area extending across part of South America for two days in late September. Scientists believed the increased depletion was due to meteorologic conditions that produced record low stratospheric temperatures, possibly allowing polar stratospheric clouds to form at a higher altitude than usual.

It was reported in May that the WMO found springtime ozone levels over northern Europe more than 10% below the long-term mean. A team from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Colorado reported levels 12.6% below normal between January and April 1993 over the U.S., with reductions of up to 18% over Caribou, Maine, and Wallops Island, Virginia. Between May and August, levels at four sites were 8.5% below normal and 3.7% below the previous lowest levels for that time of year. Over Hawaii, summer levels were reduced by 5.5%. At a meeting of signatories to the Montreal Protocol held in Bangkok, Thailand, in November 1993, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said that while industrialized countries had reduced emissions of implicated substances by 45%, only nine LDCs had reduced their emissions. It was agreed to double the Interim Multilateral Fund to help LDCs phase out ozone-depleting chemicals.

Climate Change

At a meeting of the negotiating committee for the Convention on Climate Change, held in Geneva in August, it was agreed that the initial target of stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions at their 1990 levels was insufficient to prevent global warming. Germany suggested adding a clause to the convention requiring industrialized nations to make specified emission reductions by a target date after 2000. The committee failed to agree on new targets, although most industrialized countries agreed on the need for them.

In its 1994 report the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) endorsed the consensus reached in 1990 and repeated its conclusion that unless greenhouse gas emissions were reduced, average temperatures would rise 1.4° -4.5° C (2.5° -8.1° F) by 2100. Sir John Houghton, an IPCC working group chairman, suggested that a 20% reduction in emissions over 20 years would be appropriate and probably achievable for developed countries. The report revised upward the effect of methane and found that the upward trend in carbon dioxide and methane emissions had slowed from 1991 to mid-1993, but by late 1993 carbon dioxide emissions were rising again. Two reports, published in June and August, found that atmospheric particles (aerosols), primarily of sulfuric acid and ammonium sulfate, were having a marked cooling effect--directly by increasing albedo and indirectly by nucleating the formation of small-droplet clouds. Taken together, direct and indirect aerosol effects were found to be equal to those due to greenhouse gases, but the climatic results were uncertain because of the concentration of aerosol emissions in particular regions.

In August the Japanese Environmental Agency reported that Japan was unlikely to reduce its total carbon dioxide emissions to the 1990 level by 2000, but it might be able to keep per capita emissions to the 1990 level. The per capita calculation allowed for a small increase in total emissions because of the increase in population. In the U.K. the department of applied ecology at the University of Cambridge said planned government action would easily meet the U.K. target of stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions by 2000 but would not make an adequate contribution to preventing global warming because the targets were well short of the required 60% reduction below 1990 levels.

Fresh Water

In October 1993 it was reported that a study of 40,000 people in Taiwan had found more than 400 cases of skin cancer among people exposed to water containing high levels of arsenic, some samples having up to 600 ppb, with a clear positive correlation between the number of cases and arsenic levels. A similar link had been found in Mexico and Germany. WHO planned to reduce its recommended limit for arsenic in tap water to 10 ppb, and the EPA was considering a 2-ppb limit in the U.S. Other scientists were skeptical, however, pointing out that there was no evidence of increased cancers in parts of Hungary with high arsenic levels.

In its fourth annual report, published in September, the National Rivers Authority said the number of pollution incidents in British rivers rose 8% in 1993, to 25,299, but the number of major incidents fell by 57, to 331. Some 25% of the incidents were caused by the sewage and water industries, especially from sewage overflows, a figure that was expected to fall over the next 10 years as investment programs were completed. Industrial sources accounted for 111 of the most serious incidents, diesel fuel being one of the most common pollutants.

Marine Pollution

On Nov. 12, 1993, the International Maritime Organization (IMO)--by a 37-0 vote with 5 abstentions (Belgium, the U.K., France, China, and Russia)--modified the London Dumping Convention by replacing the 10-year moratorium imposed in 1983 with a worldwide ban on the dumping of radioactive wastes at sea. Two weeks earlier Russian authorities had dumped 900 tons of radioactive cooling and cleaning water from submarine reactors into the Sea of Japan about 500 km (310 mi) from the Japanese coast. Following the outcry, Russia suspended plans to dump an additional 800 tons, and Japan abandoned its support for dumping radioactive waste. The IMO ban also covered the dumping of industrial waste and the incineration of industrial waste at sea.

A report by the North Sea Task Force, published in April, said pollution levels were falling in some parts of the sea but increasing in others, especially in inshore waters in the south. High cadmium and mercury levels were found in the kidneys and livers of seals and porpoises, cadmium in the livers of fish on the Dogger Bank, and lead on the coast of northeastern England and in the Dogger Bank and Norwegian Trench. Nutrients carried by rivers were causing algal blooms on Dogger and off Norway and Sweden, killing stock in fish nursery areas.

Toxic Wastes

On March 25, member countries of the Basel Convention on Hazardous Wastes--which had already prohibited dumping--agreed to ban from the end of 1997 all exports of toxic waste to LDCs for recycling, although the EU said it would continue to export substances it considered safe. In the U.S., on September 13 the EPA issued a draft of a report, to be finalized in September 1995, on the findings of a three-year review of the health effects of dioxins. The 2,000-page, six-volume report by more than 100 scientists affirmed a link between dioxins and cancer, a reduction in male sperm count, damage to fetuses and the immune system, and diminished IQ in children. The EPA concluded that there is no safe threshold for exposure. The main source of dioxins was found to be waste incinerators, which accounted for at least 95% of known emissions, and contaminated food and drink were the principal route by which humans encountered them. No immediate new controls were planned.

Radioactive Contamination

A report from the British Health and Safety Executive (HSE), published in October 1993, found that children who were born in Seascale, Cumbria, and whose fathers had worked at the Sellafield nuclear power plant prior to 1965 were 14 times more likely to develop leukemia or non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma than the national average, but the incidence of these diseases was not raised among the 90% of Sellafield workers not living in Seascale. In a further report published in the British Medical Journal in August, the HSE said the methods used by Martin Gardner in his original study in 1990 had led to gaps and double counting in calculations of radiation doses, distorting his results. It found that there was no need to reduce the maximum permitted radiation dose for potential fathers, but the search for the cause of the cluster at Sellafield would continue.

In September a U.S. federal appeals court overturned an injunction brought by South Carolina Gov. Carroll Campbell, Jr., to prevent two ships carrying 153 spent fuel rods from entering U.S. waters. The rods, from European research reactors but originally produced in the U.S., contained highly enriched bomb-grade uranium.

Power Lines

In October 1993 the British Medical Journal reported conflicting findings from studies of the health effects of power lines. One, from a team led by Jorgen Olsen of the Danish Cancer Society, over 20 years examined 1,707 cases of various types of cancer in children under age 15 and found that the number living within 45 m (50 yd) of power lines was five times higher than expected. The other, a Finnish study of almost 135,000 children living within 500 m (550 yd) of power lines, found 140 cancer cases rather than the 145 expected and reported no increased cancer risk. A report by Britain’s National Radiological Protection Board published on June 9 found no strong biological evidence for a general link between electromagnetic radiation and cancer but said some Scandinavian evidence suggested a possible link with childhood leukemia.

On August 25 the Institution of Electrical Engineers published the report of a two-year study that also found no clear evidence to link increased exposure to electromagnetic fields with cancer. The investigation analyzed 245 separate studies, none of which showed firm evidence of biological effects or identified any plausible mechanism by which such effects might occur. The Swedish study, it said, failed to take account of the length of time cancer patients had lived near power lines, and in Denmark, where electricity consumption had increased 30-fold since 1945, incidence of childhood cancers, including leukemia, had not changed significantly. It was reported in July that James Brewer, a former worker at the Kaiser Aluminum smelter in Tacoma, Wash., had won state workers’ compensation for cancer, which he claimed was caused by exposure to electromagnetic fields while at work between 1969 and 1986 in a pot room where the metal was smelted. Brewer’s claim was allowed because it was supported by his doctor, who said it was "more probable than not" that his cancer was due to workplace exposure to electromagnetic radiation. Michael Allaby